Phantom pregnancy advice

Sorry me again and poor old jess.

She had a season in march, and on saturday started to get quite fiesty with the other dogs, if she had food or they went to the water bowl to have a drink. thought it was down to her feeling a bit better and letting the others know she is top dog again.

Last time she had a season before she had a phantom pregnancy after, milk came in and again started fighting with kai.

Now last night she was hurting due to a problem with her leg. She has in the past few days dug a huge hole in the garden behind our shed and the middle of her leg being soar she limped down the garden, behind the shed and lay in this hole. I think she is having another phantom myself, the problem is today she is fine ( with leg ) but she had one hell of a fight with kai as he went to take some of her dog food and he didn't back down this morning.

All the evidence to me is saying another phantom, i was just wondering if the vets can give her an injection or anything to settle her hormones down does anyone know?

These phantom pregnancies can be a nightmare and each one a little different.

My Pointer, Tawny started having little hiccup type fits earlier in the year. It transpires they were down to a phantom pregnancy, hence her being spayed now.

My vets didn't give me anything for her but I'm sure there must be something on the market, or maybe something homeopathic would help.

I shall watch this thread with interest, I only have the one entire female now, Ebony, and she seems to have trouble free seasons, fingers crossed it stays like that.

I hope someone is able to give you some good advice xx

Thanks, i might ring vet up in a bit because i can really do without a hormonal lady dog

She gets really nasty and since saturday has gone for both other dogs on several occassions. Both have not really done anything (except kai today) to encourage a fight. Sometimes they only go out to get a drink of water and she attacks them, almost like "its mine and your not going near".

It was only when i saw how big the hole was behind my shed that it all made sense, and to watch her lying in it and panting she looked just like she was going to have a litter of pups in it.

I want her speyed but with all the other problems it has gone to the back of the list, the only thing is i was told that they can't spey whilst she is having a phantom as it can leave her hormones all over the place so will have to wait till it all dies down, trouble is she is then getting ready for her next season so its a bit of a circle really.

I know what you mean, fortunately Tawny wasn't nasty with hers, just scared the life out of me. She had her seasons every 9 months so we waited 3 months after her seasons to spay her.

I'm not a great lover of the hormone injections that stop seasons but seem to recall that they can be used to stop the phantom...I may be totally wrong but it may be an answer, especially if you are planning on having her spayed anyway.

Just rang vets, they say there is a medicine called galastop which you give them for 6 days and normally one course will stop phantoms.

Problem is it will cost me £120 for 3 bottles as this is what she will need for her size

There is also a higher risk of pyometry with dogs that suffer from phantoms.

No advice sorry, but just to say that is all you need. Hope she settles down soon.

Thats the same stuff that they use to dry up milk in bitches that have whelped...I have never used it myself but have heard of side effects such as bad tummies and depression. I'm sure someone will come along with a homeopathic remedy soon.

Yes i think it is as they said something about drying milk up as well.

I'm waitin for the homeopathic lady to call me, see what she suggest.

she is playing quite happily with the others at the moment so just keeping an eye on her "mood#" swings

Hi Sheba it does sound like a false pregnancy, once a bitch has had one she usually continues to have them and they can increase in intensity ( I call it a false pregnancy as opposed to a phantom , the latter was always used to describe when a bitch had been mated but wasn't in whelp,not sure if that has changed now ) .

I would be reluctant to give any hormone treatment, the problem is initially caused by a change in hormone levels and giving more hormones is only a temporary measure and can make problems worse . The only answer really is to spay .
Homeopathy is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment, a recent report says it has been found to be ineffectual (though I did read about another test relating to allergy that semed to find it beneficial) . It was being discussed on the radio the other day.

Ps the £120 would go a long way to paying for a spay

I went through this with my now departed JRT, she took to going under the stairs and would fly out at the other dogs.
The vet suggested spaying as she had been offish with the season before. Once she was spayed the problem went and she was so much happier.
As someone said, £120 that would go towards a spay. Hope you get it sorted, Good luck xx